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TiVo Has to Fund Your Local Stadium

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-just-plain-wierd dept.

Strudelkugel writes "The Washington Post has a truly Kafka-esque article regarding TiVo, the broadcast flag, the NFL and limited file sharing. "TiVo, the company that makes the digital-video-recorder boxes that inspire such strange idolatry among their users, is in a weird spot. It's asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to add a new feature -- the option for a TiVo user to send recorded digital TV programs via the Internet to nine other people." Just wait until your read the rest of the story..." This one is actually really worth a read to see just how bizarrely corrupt this all is. Enjoy.

10 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. Account by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Free registration required (THEY READ YOUR THOUGHTS).

    a/c: slashdot42@slashdot.org
    password: slashdot

    Enjoy.

    1. Re:Account by hawley+Griffin · · Score: 5, Informative

      BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times). http://extensions.roachfiend.com/index.html#bugmen ot

    2. Re:Account by Aero+Leviathan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes it does.

      1. Open Internet Explorer (or whatever your workplace mandates that y... nevermind.)
      2. Go to http://www.bugmenot.com
      3. ???
      4. Profit!

      --
      ~ Aero
  2. Privacy and marketing by $exyNerdie · · Score: 5, Informative

    Understand that TiVo itself is no hero. Its proposed system is thoroughly hobbled. The people to whom you'd send recordings online would need you to add them to a "secure viewing group" by ordering special security keys for their Windows computers, associated with your TiVo bill. Each viewer would need to plug one such key into a PC to receive, watch or edit your recordings.

    Makes me wonder if they will ask for the contact info of the receiver/viewer friend also?

  3. Re:ARGGH by NearlyHeadless · · Score: 5, Informative
    One of the reasons that cities pay so much to help build stadiums is because the stadium brings so many people to the area it creates a somewhat massive economic boom in the area, which over time can be worth more money than the cost to build the stadium.
    Not according to the research I have seen... e.g., here and here.
  4. Re:ARGGH by rekoil · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are a lot of people who would argue otherwise.

    The truth is, mayors and governors win and lose elections based on whether they're able to bring in and/or retain a NFL/MLB/NBA franchise. The economic argument is nothing but a smokescreen of legitimacy over the whole stinking process.

  5. Re:Ignorance is just as deadly as patents by s.fontinalis · · Score: 5, Informative

    As much as it pains me to defend himm W doesn't use e-mail because of the legal implications, not because he doesn't know how. He was by all accounts quite an active e-mailer when governor of Texas

  6. Re:Analog outputs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    We all, liberals and conservatives, need to push the government to fix the voting system. Something like run off voting or condorcet is needed for us to properly express our wishes. If we can't do that, we don't live in a democracy.

    Then, we can vote for third party candidates.

  7. Re:how about taxpayers.... by andrewdski · · Score: 2, Informative
    While I hesitate to defend college athletics -- certainly there are a great many problems with football and basketball, particularly -- it is not accurate to claim the taxpayers fund these programs.

    Quite the contrary, the reason schools often turn a blind eye to the recruiting shenanigans in major college sports is because they are huge money makers, both directly and in alumni fund-raising.

  8. Re:Silly bastards by Cramer · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, you'd be surprised how closely they pay attention to these sorts of things. In order to receive sports packages, the unit must be connected to a phone line. They can (and do) verify the origin of the calls... and they will see this "LA" box calling from Oakland.

    They've ruined NFL Sunday Ticket (tm) anyway... if any local station, even those DTV doesn't carry, claims to be carrying a game, it gets blacked out to force you to want the local broadcast station. In my experience over the past few years, DTV has been wrong 90% of the time. (And the local station guide data is correctly listing the right game.) And that damned "enhanced screen" is enough to get me to cancel my entire DTV.

    (And it's DTV who have a case for fraud and possibly breach on contract.)